Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’?
This paper proposes to examine Zadie Smith’s NW (2012) in the light of her essay ‘Two Directions for the Novel’, in which she explores two roads for novel writing: ‘lyrical realism’ and ‘constructive deconstruction’. In NW, Smith uses a range of narrative techniques that are indebted to realist, mod...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée
2013-10-01
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| Series: | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/996 |
| _version_ | 1818173137809833984 |
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| author | Vanessa Guignery |
| author_facet | Vanessa Guignery |
| author_sort | Vanessa Guignery |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper proposes to examine Zadie Smith’s NW (2012) in the light of her essay ‘Two Directions for the Novel’, in which she explores two roads for novel writing: ‘lyrical realism’ and ‘constructive deconstruction’. In NW, Smith uses a range of narrative techniques that are indebted to realist, modernist and postmodernist traditions, and by analysing some of them, this paper aims to find out where Smith situates herself on the literary map in 2012, how she deals with the legacies of the past and what new lines she may be drawing for herself. More than forty years after David Lodge’s essay ‘The Novelist at the Crossroads’, one may wonder whether Smith finds herself at an ‘anxiety crossroads’, to quote her own expression. Her mixture of stream-of-consciousness technique, straightforward narrative and metafictional devices shows that she chooses neither the highway of the well-made novel nor the side road of downright deconstruction, but embraces several directions without trying to reconcile them. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-11T19:23:44Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e02e1f6dc964405a963c59db23e33b6b |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1168-4917 2271-5444 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-11T19:23:44Z |
| publishDate | 2013-10-01 |
| publisher | Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Études Britanniques Contemporaines |
| spelling | doaj.art-e02e1f6dc964405a963c59db23e33b6b2022-12-22T00:53:27ZengPresses Universitaires de la MéditerranéeÉtudes Britanniques Contemporaines1168-49172271-54442013-10-014510.4000/ebc.996Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’?Vanessa GuigneryThis paper proposes to examine Zadie Smith’s NW (2012) in the light of her essay ‘Two Directions for the Novel’, in which she explores two roads for novel writing: ‘lyrical realism’ and ‘constructive deconstruction’. In NW, Smith uses a range of narrative techniques that are indebted to realist, modernist and postmodernist traditions, and by analysing some of them, this paper aims to find out where Smith situates herself on the literary map in 2012, how she deals with the legacies of the past and what new lines she may be drawing for herself. More than forty years after David Lodge’s essay ‘The Novelist at the Crossroads’, one may wonder whether Smith finds herself at an ‘anxiety crossroads’, to quote her own expression. Her mixture of stream-of-consciousness technique, straightforward narrative and metafictional devices shows that she chooses neither the highway of the well-made novel nor the side road of downright deconstruction, but embraces several directions without trying to reconcile them.http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/996contemporary British literaturedeconstructionmetafictionmodernismnarrationNW |
| spellingShingle | Vanessa Guignery Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? Études Britanniques Contemporaines contemporary British literature deconstruction metafiction modernism narration NW |
| title | Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? |
| title_full | Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? |
| title_fullStr | Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? |
| title_short | Zadie Smith’s NW: the Novel at an ‘anxiety crossroads’? |
| title_sort | zadie smith s nw the novel at an anxiety crossroads |
| topic | contemporary British literature deconstruction metafiction modernism narration NW |
| url | http://journals.openedition.org/ebc/996 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT vanessaguignery zadiesmithsnwthenovelatananxietycrossroads |